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The USBASP windows driver was previously based on libusb-win32. The certificate on the base drivers have expired and the library has now been superseded by libusbK. Earlier today we packaged up the driver and uploaded it to the server. You can now download it from the location below.

This driver should work with version of Windows XP right through to 8.1 and the version 10 preview. (both 32 and 64 bit editions). Because the driver is signed, there should be no need to disable driver certificate enforcement or use Zadig.

IDC connectors don’t play nicely with breadboards. The 2 rows of pins are too closely spaced and there are many hacks to get around this issue. In one of our tutorials we recommend taking a IDC connector with right angle leads and bending the leads to make it fit. This does work, but is a pain to get right and it looks ugly.

Ever since we started, we’ve stocked full size and half size prototyping boards. The standard sizes allow the boards to be stacked together, which is why we called ourselves protostack.

This month we are stocking a new board, which is approximately a quarter of the size of the full size one. Instead of calling it the “quarter size board”, we’ve renamed all the various sizes to Small, Medium and Large.

The ATMEGA1284 is quite impressive with 128K of flash and 16K of RAM. It comes in a 40 pin through-hole PDIP package, has the same general pinout as the ATMEGA32A but runs faster and has more features. Like the ATMEGA32A, in can be used with our 40 Pin AVR Development Board.

The SN74LVC245A is an 8 bit bus transceiver with 3 state outputs. It has 2 buses (A & B), both 8 bits wide. It can transmit from A to B or vice versa, depending on the state of the DIR pin. The input side is 5.5V tolerant and the output side matches VCC when high, so when interfacing with a 3.3V device, set VCC to 3.3V. The datasheet has a lot more detail.

I had the opportunity last week to interview Murray Harms from Queensland Australia, and talk to him about his home made Iron Man Suit. He built it with his son for Halloween and as you can see below, it looks pretty amazing.